Vanishing childhood

One of the great failings of the adult world is the collateral damage inflicted on children, with trauma yanking them out of childhood before they’re ready. This vivid image conveys the suddenness of Boaz-Jachin’s ejection from childhood, later underlined by the lumpen weight of unwanted knowledge he now needs to schlep around in his young body and soul.

It brings to mind an even more disturbing description of childhood curtailed by parental self-realization when the father disappears to find himself in The God of Small Things. There he was described as having broken the neck of their childhood. His children could still play, but something was irreparably damaged.

‘Boaz-Jachin felt his childhood vanish as if he had been launched from it in a rocket.’